Equine Grass Sickness

In trying to throw more light on the cause of this dire condition, the scientists studied the nerve tissue of six horses that had died from grass sickness. But in a serendipitous clinical analysis, they found that the tissue contained proteins commonly seen in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients, such as the build-up of amyloid proteins.

Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia and a hallmark of the disease is the accumulation of amyloid plaques between nerve cells in the brain.  

In total, the researchers discovered 506 different proteins had been altered in nerve tissue from the horses that had died from grass sickness compared to equines that had died from other causes. The promising result from the study is that the new knowledge could help develop tests to quickly detect the condition, which is currently so hard to diagnose and often only confirmed at autopsy. 

While the disease is extremely rare in North America, some two percent of horses die from grass sickness each year in the UK, and horses also succumb to it in some European countries. It is most often seen in young horses between two and seven years of age and during spring growth season or during the fall.

Like all research, new discoveries can open up promising pathways to faster diagnosis, more effective treatment, and applications to other conditions. And perhaps, in the process, this research may benefit both horses with grass sickness and humans with Alzheimer’s disease.